251 Responses to WEDNESDAY OPEN THREAD

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  1. George R says:
    December 6, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    INBBC’s totally inadequate critique of Gulf states: the central problem
    of ISLAM goes unmentioned!:-

    “Social media brings change in Gulf despite efforts at control”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20587246

       0 likes

  2. George R says:
    December 6, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    Global media (inc INBBC) covers up Islamic jihad:-

    “Terror attacks at high levels worldwide, but AFP won’t say who is committing them.”

    [Excerpt]:-

    “While pseudo-scholars spin tall tales about “anti-Muslim bias” in the media, the media actually actively covers up the Islamic character of jihad terror attacks. Note that in this story about the increase in terror attacks, the only terrorists who are actually identified are Maoists. All the other terror attacks are described in the passive voice, as if they were just acts of God. To their perpetrators, they were: they were acts of Allah. But the average American reading this, unless he is aware of the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat, will get the impression that the increase in terror attacks was all due to various kinds of disparate ‘non-state actors’ and ‘militants,’ and have no idea that the overwhelming majority of the attacks were committed by people holding to the same ideology and belief-system, despite being scattered all over the world.

    “And that ignorance is just what AFP and other mainstream media outlets are trying to foster.”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/12/terror-attacks-at-high-levels-worldwide-but-afp-wont-say-who-is-committing-them.html

       2 likes

  3. Jeff Waters says:
    December 6, 2012 at 7:01 pm

    A slightly left of centre tweet from our friend Paul Mason:

    Powerful elite prefer to read books abt battles, leaders, “great” politicians, Ayn Rand, reinforcing worldview – shock. http://bit.ly/WM7sKK

       1 likes

    • Jeff Waters says:
      December 6, 2012 at 7:28 pm

      And Gary Linekar has also tweeted a political opinion:

      Starbucks to pay some tax in future. How terribly considerate of them.

      Aren’t BBC presenters barred from expressing personal political views in public?

         2 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        December 6, 2012 at 8:07 pm

        As long as their Twitter accounts have the “views my own” disclaimer, the BBC allows anything and everything until they get a complaint. Then and only then do they even consider whether or not to apply the rules.

        Contrary to claims, Beeboids’s “personal” accounts are essentially unmonitored and unsupervised. Even if those “personal” accounts are used as the official contact points for BBC programmes (Jeremy Vine, Jim Hawkins, etc.).

           1 likes

  4. wallygreeninker says:
    December 6, 2012 at 7:08 pm

    As a character once said of marriage, in one of Kipling’s short stories set in the Raj: ‘It’s like typhoid – you don’t know who’s going to get it next.’

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20627765

       1 likes

  5. Reed says:
    December 6, 2012 at 8:00 pm

    Pithy retort…

    Back to civilisation….or not! A sign that Britain is Broken. You dont see this is the back of the taxis in #Gaza. twitter.com/JonDonnison/st…— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) December 2, 2012

    @jondonnison that’s true,in Gaza they drag dead bodies around on a motorbike,with their trousers down.— IreneFink (@IreneFink) December 2, 2012

       0 likes

  6. wallygreeninker says:
    December 6, 2012 at 8:06 pm

    If the Beeb can discuss the violent tendencies in Buddhism, as they did on R3 Nightwaves the other day, perhps Samira Ahmed will preside over a consideration of this proposition:

    ‘Yes, There Is a Link between Islam and Paedophilia.’

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/12/yes-there-is-a-link-between-islam-and-paedophilia.html

    Chapter and verse on why Muslim culture encourages that kind of thing, by UK based Italian journalist, Enza Ferreri.

       1 likes

  7. Teddy Bear says:
    December 6, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    Honest Reporting have surveyed world media reports on the recent conflict in Gaza, and came up with the Top10 Media Fails of the Gaza War

    Unsurprisingly the BBC take the top 2 spots for this ‘honour’.
    First with 1. Jon Donnison, BBC concerning his fauxtography

    And BBC news itself aspired to second place. It’s worthwhile noting that CNN, who are no particular friends of Israel, at least made the effort to verify the footage in question, and when found dubious, removed it with an apology, unlike the BBC as you can read below.

    2. BBC News
    December 3, 2012 15:54 by Alex Margolin

    Almost as soon as Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense, the Pallywood machine cranked into gear, creating fake images of Palestinians being evacuated after an Israeli strike. The footage appeared on BBC and CNN reports on the fighting.

    CNN took steps after the fact to verify the footage with Reuters, which distributed it. And after failing to get a satisfactory answer, removed the footage and issued an apology.

    The BBC, however, stood by the footage, claiming that the footage it ran was an edit from a longer reel. The footage that appeared on the site, however, bore all of trademarks of similar attempts to fake footage on the day of the Mohammed al-Dura incident.

       1 likes

  8. David Preiser (USA) says:
    December 6, 2012 at 8:55 pm

    Seeing as how Newsnight is still going strong, in no danger of being cancelled over Saville/McAlpine, and the new BBC DG is promising more and better management, and all supporters of the BBC have been declaring that the problem is a lack of proper management, here’s a reminder of ex-BBC Jeff Randall’s prescient analysis:

    All the BBC needs is proper management”

    This is from Oct. 2007, and applies today.

    On July 11, the BBC showed the media a misleading clip of the Queen. It took 24 hours for a formal retraction to be made and almost three months for BBC1’s Controller, Peter Fincham, to resign. In a more robust organisation he would have gone the next day.

    As Fincham walked, the BBC promised “to implement a comprehensive set of actions to address the weaknesses of communications and co-ordination with other divisions.” Do what?

    Hello, it’s not that complicated. This fiasco does not merit another burst of expensive training manuals. There’s no need for yet more weasel worded instructions on internal discourse. You simply tell staff: DON’T MAKE IT UP. If you do, you will be slung out. No ifs, no buts and no compensation. That would do the trick, but it’s not going to happen. Instead, all programme-makers are being sent on truth courses. The BBC should broadcast them: I’d pay good money to see John Humphrys and Jeremy Paxman being lectured by some numpty on why telling fibs is a bad idea.

    The people who were part of the problem back then are in charge now. Like I’ve been saying, nothing will change. Baron Hall was gone from the BBC by then, but anyone who thinks he’ll do anything to fix the real problems will most likely be severely disappointed.

    The BBC’s buzzword is ”inclusive”. A section head can probably get away with ordering tea and biscuits for a team lunch without referring up, but anything more challenging requires a meeting or two.

    From there, you are on a slippery slope to appraisal sessions, awareness courses, interactive away days, feedback analysis and, in extremis, full-blown inquiries (preferably conducted by outsiders). The golden rule is: under no circumstances show initiative or make yourself accountable. Those demonstrating firm leadership are, in effect, offered counselling. Persistent offenders end up in planning, where instant decisions take at least five years to germinate.

    In stark contrast to the pusillanimity of many Television Centre suits, one of the BBC’s most endearing features is the preparedness of front-line journalists to rip into top brass when it embarrasses the corporation (which is quite often). On Friday’s Newsnight, Kirsty Wark said Queengate had revealed a ”bleak picture of BBC’s management”.

    Plus ça change, etc. Read the whole thing, and despair.

       2 likes

  9. capriole, peter says:
    December 6, 2012 at 9:17 pm

    PR supremo arrested over sex offences
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

    Nice to see that Operation Yewtree has arrested him, following BBC Savile revelations, Clifford claimed that a number of “big-name stars from the 1960s and 1970s” had contacted him because they were “frightened to death” they were going to be implicated. Simple question Mr Clifford, who were they? Oh, you think that a PR “supremo” is quasi like protected like a doctor? Ouch, big mistake; arrest the cunt. Bravo operation Yewtree, bravo. Look at how the BBC, who still want “to fix it” love to talk about the “strands” of the BBC Savile allegations. As if they know what they are talking about! Note how Dave Lee Travis doesn’t seem to have a BBC past, etc.

       2 likes

    • Jeff Waters says:
      December 6, 2012 at 9:49 pm

      Five people have now been arrested and a sixth questioned under Yewtree.

      The four other people arrested are Freddie Starr, Gary Glitter, Wilfred De’Ath, a retired BBC producer, and radio broadcaster Dave Lee Travis. Police have also questioned under caution a man in his 80s.

      You don’t suppose the man in his 80s is one Stuart Hall, ex BBC presenter, do you?

      Jeff

         0 likes

  10. wallygreeninker says:
    December 6, 2012 at 10:10 pm

    MP Steve Baker complained to the BBC about articles praising the contribution of communism towards making China what it is today, in their website News Magazine. He said that they should have flagged up Jacques’ communist leanings including his former editorship of communism today. No doubt Jacques views were the same as those expressed in his four broadcats at the end of October, discussed on this site under the heading ‘China more democratic than the US.’

    The editor wrote back that he did not accept the validity of his criticism – so there. A bit off hand, considering he was dealing with an elected representative. He recounts the experience in the Commentator and there are a lot of sympathetic comments.

    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2213/the_bbc_and_its_commie_economists

       1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      December 6, 2012 at 10:48 pm

      Defense tactic #3:

      We would also emphasise that A Point of View is, of course, just that – our contributors are able to develop an argument, and we wouldn’t expect (nor indeed want) listeners to agree with everything they hear.”

      This is valid, of course, if the range of contributor opinions is balanced over time. Which it isn’t.

      And if the BBC says Jacques’ past as a Communist is irrelevant to his current activity, can Jim Dandy stop throwing Nick Robinson’s past as a Young Conservative in our faces?

         1 likes

  11. Jeff Waters says:
    December 6, 2012 at 10:26 pm

    Can we have another open thread please?

    Jeff

       2 likes

  12. George R says:
    December 6, 2012 at 10:58 pm

    The killing of Dutch linesman.

    1.) BBC-NUJ:-

    “Three charged over Dutch linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen death”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20627393?

    2.)

    “Geert Wilders: we don’t have a soccer problem; we have a problem with Moroccans…”

    http://sheikyermami.com/2012/12/05/geert-wilders-we-dont-have-a-soccer-problem-we-have-a-problem-with-moroccans/

       1 likes

  13. noggin says:
    December 7, 2012 at 9:04 am

    as i drove back this morning, the mo farrah appreciation society … i mean sports personality of the year drone continued on 5live … the one and only mo farrah, wow remember mo s wins, oh that commentary was just the best
    but without mo eh!
    sports personality coming soon on the bbc

       0 likes

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